On Scene is a quarterly title with accurate and well-informed articles supported by high-quality imagery, showcasing the vehicles and equipment that are core to heavy recovery operators’ fleets as well as the skills, knowledge and experience of the professionals that work long hours – often in the most difficult of circumstances – to provide a huge range of essential services to other road users and our wider society. These unsung heroes are the ‘go-to’ option when things go wrong, sorting others’ problems out 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Roadside assistance has been an essential service for generations of road users, mirroring the development of the internal combustion engine itself and, more recently, offering the skills and support services required for new and emerging forms of vehicle propulsion. The range of services the industry provides to its customers continues to expand, spanning everything from simple roadside repairs to coordinated heavy recovery operations using some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world.

The diverse nature of the industry provides huge scope for a quality publication to highlight every aspect of today’s recovery operations. At one end, the biggest, most impressive recovery vehicles that can rescue the heaviest commercial vehicles from the most desperate situations, with highly sophisticated rotator cranes mounted on four and five-axle chassis, multiple winches and a host of other features, invariably presented in their owner’s bespoke livery, are a natural subject for the kind of superb photography and well-written informative text our articles provide. Such equipment is often designed and built with considerable input from the end user based on years of operational experience, with owners quite rightly taking great pride in their equipment, their combined achievements and the generations of hard work they and their loyal staff have provided.

At the other end of the scale, while smaller, more modest recovery vehicle operations are often overlooked by some, we recognise that the smaller kit is out every day, providing an equally critical rescue and recovery role and earning its keep for the operator. And the increasing level of sophistication in these lighter recovery vehicles is every bit as fascinating as in bigger ones – which is why we intend to cover this part of the industry just as fully in every edition of the magazine.

By aiming our titles at specific sectors of industry in this way, we are able to connect more meaningfully with senior executives, providing our readers with need-to-know information that highlights best practice and analyses market trends, helping them to run more efficient, customer-focused operations and assisting them in future purchasing decisions.